The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police: Woman fired shots at school bus Students unhurt; bus driver injured by shattered glass.
From inside her Suwanee home Monday morning, the 12 loud pops she heard didn’t register as gunshots.
As she does most mornings, the Riverside Elementary School parent had just put her kindergartner on the school bus and returned to
her home in the Highlands at Bridgegate subdivision, a quiet neighborhood across the street from the school
and Settles Bridge Park. The pops must have been nearby construction, she surmised.
About 30 minutes later, a phone call from Riverside administrators sent
the woman rushing to the school, past a growing cadre of Gwinnett County police officers gathered on her street. In the school’s park-
ing lot, she saw her child’s bus riddled with bullets, its front windshield shattered.
According to police, a woman opened fire on the Gwinnett school bus as it was leaving a bus stop on High- land Gate Circle around 7:15 a.m. No children on board were injured, and they arrived safely at the school after the shooting, police and school district officials said.
The bus driver sustained minor injuries caused by shattered glass, but no one was shot, Gwinnett police spokesman Cpl. William Wolfe said from the scene. No information was released on a possible motive.
Authorities have not confirmed how many children were on board, but the par- ent, who did not wish to be identified out of concern for her family’s safety, said her 5-year-old daughter and three other students were on the bus.
When the shooting started and glass began to fly, the driver told her daughter to duck, the mother said. The child was seated in the second bench behind the driver.
“We are grateful for the awareness of our driver, the partnership, and the swift investigation of our school police and Gwinnett County police, who were able to identify the suspect and take them into custody this morning,” said Melissa Laramie, chief communications officer for Gwinnett County Public Schools. “Most importantly, we are so grateful the GCPS staff and children on the bus arrived safely at school.”
The alleged shooter, whose name was not released, was taken into custody soon after police arrived in the neighborhood. She was stopped in a vehicle and detained without further incident, according to Wolfe.
“This is an isolated incident,” he said. “This isn’t a common occurrence here in Gwinnett County. But as to the exact motive, we are still waiting for detectives to show up to conduct interviews and make that determination.”
The mother of the kindergarten student said she recognized the woman as a neighbor. The school offered to send her daughter home, but after hearing some reassuring words, the 5-year-old decided to stay at school.
The school district increased the presence of school police officers on campus Monday “to ensure all of our students, families and staff feel safe,” Laramie said in a statement.